200,000 farmers to get improved wheat seed

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some 200,000 farmers across the country would receive improved quality wheat seed this season, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) said on Monday.

MAIL acquired 10,000 metric tonnes of improved quality wheat seed from Afghanistan National Seed Association against $6 million under an agreement signed between MAIL Minister Asadullah Zamir and seeds production association’s chief Abdul Qadar Sadaat.

The minister said the cost of the seeds was provided from MAIL’s development budget.

Zamir said the improved seeds would be distributed to 200,000 farmers in all the 34 provinces of the country.

MAIL’s cereal department head, Mohammad Akbar, told Pajhwok Afghan News the ministry had suggested the president to provide the seed with 40 percent subsidy to farmers; however, no response was received as yet.

Minister Zamir said 10,000 metric tonnes of seeds would be cultivated on 200 acres of farmland, adding it would help increase wheat production by 30 percent.

“In the past 13 years, the purchase deal of seeds is taking place on time for the first time. And the seeds will also be distributed to farmers in the right time.”

Winter wheat seeds are planted in October in Afghanistan.

Sadaat said the association established last year had membership of 130 seed production companies.

Wolesi Jirga member from Herat province Ghulam Farooq, who was present at the seed purchasing agreement, asked MAIL to ensure the seeds reached needed people in far-flung areas.

He said it had been experienced that the seeds had earlier not reached farmers in remote parts.